Why crime matters again

BY RIC KELLERSpecial to the Star-Banner

Sunday

Jan 27, 2008 at 12:01 AM

The problem is all over the evening news and the statistics are troubling.
Since 2005, the murder rate in Orlando is up 77 percent. From 2005 to 2006, robberies by juveniles in Marion County jumped 390 percent.
I've spent the past several months meeting with local sheriffs and chiefs of police, as well as judges, prosecutors and federal agents. I've ridden along in the middle of the night with cops patrolling our most dangerous neighborhoods. And I've gone into the field with our U.S. Marshals as they've tracked down the worst of the worst fugitives.
Crime is primarily a local issue and law enforcement in Central Florida is doing a good job with limited resources. But there is a federal role to help our police chiefs and sheriffs fight crime with a balanced approach that emphasizes both enforcement and prevention.
First, we need more cops on the street and specialized federal teams in targeted areas of Central Florida.
The COPS program started in 1994 and is responsible for putting 120,000 cops on the street nationwide, including 774 cops in my district, 234 of which have been hired since I first took office.
The program is simple. Once a local law enforcement agency is approved for a COPS grant, the federal government picks up the tab for new police officers or sheriff's deputies for three years. The local agency is then required to cover the full cost for at least one year.
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft correctly described the COPS program as a "miraculous sort of success." A nonpartisan Government Accountability Office study concluded that the decline in the number of violent crimes from 1994 to 2000 was associated with increases in the number of cops on the street funded by the COPS program.
I've been the lead Republican in Congress championing the COPS program, and the COPS bill that the U.S. House passed last year 381-34 would add 50,000 new police officers nationwide, including 325 in my district. The U.S. Senate is expected to act on COPS legislation soon.
Second, we need to fix our juvenile justice system in Florida, a system which is completely broken.
The number one complaint I hear from police officers, sheriff's deputies and prosecutors is the same kids keep getting arrested 15 or 20 times.
Just last week I hosted a live telephone town hall meeting from Washington, D.C., and called 40,000 families in Lake and Marion counties. One of the listeners told me the same juveniles - kids she knew and could identify - keep breaking into her property, but law enforcement has been unable to stop them.
A big part of the problem, according to what Central Florida Juvenile Court Judge Tony Johnson told me, is Department of Juvenile Justice commitment managers keep making recommendations of probation for violent juveniles and our judges are usually reversed by the Fifth District Court of Appeals if they deviate from the recommendations.
I've been working with leaders who recognize the problem, like Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and state Sen. Carey Baker, whose district includes part of Marion County, on steps that can be made to take juvenile sentencing decisions out of the hands of caseworkers and put those decisions into the hands of judges.
Third, since 80 percent of Florida prison inmates are high school dropouts, we need to give kids positive role models and after-school activities.
We need to give our young people hope through education and job opportunities.
For example, one way we help kids from low- and moderate-income families go to college is through Pell Grants, money that never needs to be paid back but yields an amazing return. By investing $13 billion dollars in Pell Grants it helps yield up to $85 billion in additional tax revenue since the average college graduate earns 75 percent more than the average high school graduate.
I'm chairman of the Congressional Pell Grant Caucus and firmly believe keeping at-risk kids in school and ultimately helping them get into college is one of the best crime prevention ideas around.
Finally, we need to keep working together to solve our violent crime problem.
I made securing $282,000 for the advanced fingerprint technology requested by the Marion County Sheriff's Office one of my top priorities. We were successful and saw that initiative funded in the recent year-end spending bill that just passed Congress last month.
Don't take my word for it, just tune in tonight. A few minutes spent watching the evening news tells you it's time to once again make fighting crime everyone's priority.
U.S. Rep. Ric Keller, R-Orlando, represents the 8th Congressional District.

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